Gruul Tanking

[Liadrin]

Our MT warrior is stuck with the late shift at work and can't raid for awhile, so last night was my first attempt at tanking High King and Gruul as I'm probably the next geared tank. High King was fine, we got him on the second try as the first try our mage's spells got resisted and the caster ran amok. I don't think I was ever in much danger tanking Maulgar and the healers had a decent time with me.

Gruul was a different story. We got him down to 6% and 1% a couple of tries (the 1% was heartbreaking) but most times I died at around the 12th or 13th growth. Some were pointing at healers and some were saying I didn't have enough health. I'll link my armory below, but with commanding shout I was at about 17.5k health, and don't know how I can improve it more without elusive kara drops (I still need the BP from nightbane and the gloves from maiden) and t4 shoulders (we always get hunter/lock/mage). I thought I was sufficiently geared for him, what do you guys think? And if not, any other suggestions other than the two mentioned above?

Thanks in advance. I know this might fit under the gear forum but I wouldn't mind some strategy on this that I might be missing too. I know to step out of the cave ins, get the hell away from people before the shatter, and keep holy shield up. Anything else? We have a good druid eating hateful strikes and a third warrior intervening during reverbs.

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/chara ... &n=Liadrin

[Lore]

17.5k hp should be enough to tank Gruul.

What was causing the wipe? Were you dying, were healers dying?

[Liadrin]

I guess the fight starts to go downhill when I die. A few dps/healers may die to shatters here and there, but nothing too bad for most of the attempts. I generally wasn't getting crushed except maybe if HS happened to be down during a reverb or something to that effect. The healers confirmed that I really wasn't taking spike damage.

[Jensaarai]

I've never been there, but 17.5k HP seems like it'd be plenty enough. You have a slightly lower dodge chance then I'd like, but...I would guess your healers aren't geared well enough...because you're saying you're dying at 12 or 13 growths, I've heard a kill at 16 is normal? So your dps seems ok, just your healers can't keep you up.

I was browsing your guild armory, who were your healers that fight? Do they have the recommended stats?

[Liadrin]

Our healers are mostly competent. There are probably a couple that don't hold their weight. Also, you won't find most of them in our particular guild's armory, we run it with another guild.

I sacrificed dodge mostly for stam, as I don't use my Moroes watch or anything like that. I have a lot of parry though, so it makes up for some.

[Lore]

Honestly, if you're getting to 6% and 1%, the problem isn't your tank. Even a single DPS'er who died early could have done that 1% DPS between the time they died and the time you wiped. Likewise, if you're not dying of spike damage, a single healer could have given you the 1500 HP or whatever that you needed to survive til the next big heal came in.

It sounds like a pretty cut-and-dry case of "Oh, it must have been the Paladin tank" to me.

[Liadrin]

Update: We tried again tonight with me tanking, and we got him on around the 4th or 5th try.

I think our healers were living through the shatters better this time, and we had quite a few up when we got him at around the 12th growth. This time I brought a ton of consumables so I was at around 18.1k hp.

Thanks everyone for the help!

[Vallion]

Encouraging to hear man. From tanking up through AQ40 on my Warrior old-world, I can tell you it's completely normal to wipe like that on newer stuff. As Lore said, it sounds like they were taking normal raid progression snafus and placing it on your shoulders because your class tag said "Paladin." Encouraging to hear that you were successful in your endeavor. Keep up the good work hombre!

[Everlight]

Update: We tried again tonight with me tanking, and we got him on around the 4th or 5th try.

Grats! We haven't looked at Gruul as of yet, but hearing of people successfully downing him with a Paladin tank is music to my ears.

[Daeren]

With me as MT, I actually take less crushings than our warriortank last night. That despite the fact that silence makes it a real pain in the ass sometimes.

[Lore]

Grats!

[Strom]

Seems like the right thread to ask this-

I have tanked my guild firsts on Prince and High King, but now comes Gruul.... I have not even attempted him yet. If any of the paladins that have tanked him are around, do you have any advice that is more paladin-centric than most of the strats out there? Any pitfalls I need to look out for? High King was a blast! Eating a 10.5K mighty blow and then a 5.8K normal hit is a rush

[Lore]

His aoe silence sucks if it comes at a bad time and you can't get holy shield back up, be ready to pop nightmare seeds/healthstones/potions/anything else to survive it.

Don't worry too much about getting back in range of him after the shatter, he wanders around like an idiot for a second or two afterward anyway.

[Strom]

His aoe silence sucks if it comes at a bad time and you can't get holy shield back up, be ready to pop nightmare seeds/healthstones/potions/anything else to survive it.

Don't worry too much about getting back in range of him after the shatter, he wanders around like an idiot for a second or two afterward anyway.

Hitting him up this Sunday night. I will keep an eye out for that.

[Jensaarai]

Yeah, the worst part I found was the silence...that was the reason I died every time, because the healers just weren't quick enough :/ I did everything I could, pots/healthstone/seed/etc but I wasn't at full HP before, and I didn't get healed fast enough after...but some healers are still new and undergeared, we're still kinda "just" killing him because some people are lazy and won't gear up, or we have to bring in undergeared people, etc...whatever.

Guess that's where Last Stand/Shield Wall come in handy :/